Posts Tagged ‘Haro Strait’
Thursday, August 11th, 2011
Thursday brought blue skies and calm seas. However, there were no reports of anyone seeing any Orcas in the Salish Sea. So we took the best lead we had and headed towards Victoria to try and find the elusive Humpback Whale.
On the way out we encountered lots of harbor seals bobbing in the tide and even a couple bald eagles soaring above the south end of the island. After those encounters we motored across Haro Strait toward Victoria. The last reports we heard were of two animals that had just ‘fluked up’ and gone for a deeper dive. So we slowly moved into the area, turned off the engines, and waited.
After only a few short minutes we had two mature Humpbacks surface not far from the boat side by side. We watched as they each took a few breathes, spouting about 15 feet in the air, and then getting great shots of a double fluke as the dove again. We repositioned the boat and waited for the next surfacing. As we scanned all the around, I heard passengers from another boat gasp in excitement and I turned just in time to see both Humpbacks completely breach out of the water!! Our other boat, the Sea Lion, was between us and the whales, but one of the Humpbacks got so much air that I could see it over the top of the other boat. It was Incredible! Humpbacks are some of my favorite whales in the world.
After all that excitement we headed towards home and found a giant male Steller Sea Lion hauled out on the rocks. Every day is different, and every day is a Safari!
Mike
Captain – San Juan Safaris
Tags: Bald Eagle, Harbor Seal, Haro Strait, Humpback Whale, Steller\'s Sea Lion
Posted in orca whale watching by seattle | Comments Off
Monday, August 1st, 2011
Today, even the Kittiwake had an adventure! We traveled over to Orcas Island to pick up a family of ten for a private charter and from there on, we were surrounded by a continuous showing by Pacific Northwest wildlife!
First, it was a little harbor seal between Lopez and Shaw Islands. Next, it was one then two stellar sea lions (BIG ones too–they can weigh up to 2,200 pounds and be ten feet long!) swimming in the currents between Lopez and San Juan Islands. Further into the Cattle Pass, we discovered two bald eagles perched side by side above a water-front home.
Out into the waters off Salmon bank, where the Strait of Juan de Fuca and Haro straight meet, we found exactly what we were still holding our breaths for: L-pod of the Southern Resident Killer Whales! The pod was spread out near and off shore and from Cattle Pass up towards False Bay. It was every whale for itself, with a few being social and in pairs and trios. Some seemed to be traveling, others hunting and one frisky pair may have been mating (was he an outsider from J or K pod?). They were heading south but after thirty minutes of viewing, they all of a sudden went offshore and started traveling north. At this point we decided to test our wildlife luck and moved on away from the orcas.
The visibility was excellent (we could see Mount Rainier and Mount Baker!), the wind was a mellow breeze and the ocean was flat: a rare and perfect combination for Minke whale searching! We found “bird balls” (high densities of birds sitting on the water, potentially on a ball of bait fish like herring). One bird ball took off all at once and minutes later, we found out why: a minke whale had come in to eat their herring! We watched it for about twenty minutes and then moved on.
On the way back to Orcas Island, the wildlife continued to appear! More stellar sea lions and harbor seals swimming and sunning at Whale Rocks; and our finale of harbor porpoises between Lopez and San Juan Islands. Whew, we were exhausted after that (as evident by the six passengers–teenagers–napping on the ride back in)! A truly wonderful day on the water. Big thanks to the Lower family!
Serena, Naturalist
San Juan Safaris
Tags: Bald Eagles, Cattle Pass, Harbor Porpoise, Harbor Seals, Haro Strait, L pod, Lopez Island, minke whale, orca whales, orcas island, san juan island, Southern Resident Killer Whales, Stellar sea lion, Strait of Juan de Fuca
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Tuesday, July 12th, 2011
O Canadaaaa, you have the resident orcas in your waters and we are coming to see them! North out of the harbor, past Yellow Island (hello, plump harbor seals!), along Spieden Island (any Mouflon sheep?), around Flattop Island, across to Waldron Island (shy harbor porpoises) and across the Haro Strait (and the US/Canadian border) to Saturna Island. And what did we find? The largest of the dolphin (odontocete) species: killer whales!
Upon arriving to the scene, passengers saw three whales off our port, with another one off our bow and more coming from the east at our starboard. A large male was swimming behind us about 5oo yards in the shipping channel. He seemed to be the one to rev things up in the pod; this male gave two full clear-the-water breaches before resorting to some tail slaps as a tanker ship was about to pass through southbound. Word in the pod must have spread that it was active time, and multiple orcas–including several precocious calves–began breaching, tail slapping, peduncle throwing and upside down tail slapping repeatedly. And then again. And then some more! This continued for at least thiry minutes and was still going on intermittently when we had to leave for home port. Our hydrophone (underwater microphone) indicated that it was a very spread out and vocal resident whale (salmon-loving/eating) pod.
Along the way home, we spotted four bald eagles; one came flying down for the classic fish-grab-with-talons-out but at the last minute decided not to. Did his fish food item dive out of sight or did it not measure up as a worthy meal?
Serena, Naturalist
San Juan Safaris
Tags: Bald Eagle, Harbor Porpoise, Harbor Seal, Haro Strait, Orcas, san juan island, Saturna Island, Southern Resident Killer Whales, Spieden Island
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Thursday, July 7th, 2011
Our journey out of Friday Harbor started out a bit blustery and bumpy, but we soon discovered it did not scare off any of the wildlife! Today’s trip was full of creatures from both the land and the sea! Eagles, harbor seals, harbor porpoise, and last but not least ORCAS! As we journeyed up and over to the west side of San Juan Island we discovered a large pod of 15+ killer whales in Haro Strait; all surfacing and traveling in perfect synchronization. We believe this pod was made up of several members from both J and K pods. We were excited at the opportunity of spotting the very NEW (2 day old!) calf from K pod, it was hard to try and get a look as there were so many in the group traveling all together! Very exciting to see! We left the orcas as they continued to travel northbound and made our way to Gooch Island, just over the Canadian border, to find some harbor porpoise! The journey back home was just as adventurous as we saw several bald eagles soaring through the sky and two perched at the top of a dead tree on Stuart Island! Quite the successful day full of wildlife and whales!
Alex, Naturalist
San Juan Safaris
Tags: Haro Strait, j pod orca whales, K pod orcas, Orcas, san juan island
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Wednesday, June 29th, 2011
Our adventures today started off a little cool, cloudy and choppy as we traveled south towards Cattle Pass. Along the way, we stopped for some harbor seals hauled out attempting to bask but then found others at the Pass being more efficient with their time (there was no sun for basking) hunting for food.
Around the bend, headed northwest into the Haro Straight, we began seeing intermittent identifiable black dorsal fins: looks like J-pod was in the neighborhood. The pod was spread out over a half mile with about ten individuals in pairs and singles. Some of the animals were even breaching! Another whale watching vessel identified one of the leaders as J2, “Granny,” leading the whales south but potentially changing the pod’s direction to go north again.
On our way back towards the harbor, we stopped by Long Island to see a bald eagle perched on a tree branch just fifty yards from its nest. As we made our final run into the harbor, we got some rain sprinkles followed by a very rewarding full sunshine!
Serena, Naturalist
San Juan Safaris
Tags: Bald Eagle, Cattle Pass, friday harbor, Harbor Seal, Haro Strait, j pod, Orcas, san juan island
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Wednesday, June 22nd, 2011
Woooeeee, the whales made us work for it today! Resident killer whales were reported at nearly the farthest point we can travel on our trips and they weren’t coming our way south either. We loaded up both boats and headed north right out of Friday Harbor with not a moment to spare to stop and gaze at other islands as we went. We crossed the border into Canada at the Haro Straight, went into Plumper Sound and between Mayne and Saturna Islands to pop out on the other side in the Strait of Georgia: we could see the city of VANCOUVER! Holy moly. OK, a little farther north along Mayne Island and BAM: whales!
They were all over the place and being a little sassy too. It looked like J30 “Riptide” and friends/family from J-pod were together, with several cow-calf pairs. Even further, many of the calves–and some of the adults–were incredibly active, with tail slapping, pec slapping, upside down tail slapping, SPY-HOPPING, and–are you ready for this?–breaching! And not just the lazy kinda-sorta breaches; we’re talking full on clear-the-water breaching!
Eventually, as it always goes in wildlife watching, we had to leave the whales to their Canadian frolics and head back to San Juan Island. Who knows, maybe they will decide to head south today or their counterparts, the transients, might come into the area instead.
Serena, Naturalist
San Juan Safaris
Tags: friday harbor, Haro Strait, j pod, Orca whale, san juan island, Southern Resident Killer Whales
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Saturday, June 4th, 2011
Northbound from the harbor, we soon found our dead harbor seal with about five bald eagles sharing its carcass off of Sentinel Island. Day three of its destruction and the seal still had some meat on it to feed the local raptors. Onwards around the north end of San Juan Island, we started to see sporadic dorsal fins belonging to harbor porpoises. Into the Haro Straight, we passed Lime Kiln State Park on the west side of the island. We were lucky to have sunny weather with excellent visibility: we could see Mount Rainier, over 150 miles away!
Getting further south from the Haro Straight into the Straight of Juan de Fuca, we started to see seabirds. Then more and more seabirds. And with those seabirds there were Minke whales! With the perfectly flat calm water and light breezes, we could hear the Minke’s exhale. All in all we saw four whales, with six reported in the area (one off of Lopez Island and three to five off of Salmon bank). Based on their zigzagging travel motions and their head and rostrum rises, the Minke whales appeared to be foraging, sharing fish with the seabirds. On the way home, we saw stellar sea lions, harbor seals and several more harbor porpoises.
Serena, Naturalist
San Juan Safaris
Tags: Bald Eagle, friday harbor, Harbor Porpoise, Haro Strait, Mouflon Sheep, Steller\'s Sea Lion
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Monday, May 30th, 2011
On Sunday, May 29th we ventured out on two trips to accommodate all of our holiday weekend whale watchers. And successful we were.
Headed northbound, we stopped by Spieden island to see the non-native Mouflon sheep and Sika and Fallow deer. Further on, we saw several harbor seals and Stellar sea lions hauled out on the rocks warming up in the wonderful San Juan sunshine. Off of bird rock, we saw a young bald eagle (no white-feathered head yet) perched two feet out of the water, either just finishing his fishing and drying off or waiting to strike something tasty. On bird rock, we saw hundreds of cormorants sitting upon nests and rock ledges.
Out into the shipping lane known as Haro straight off the northwest side of San Juan Island, we discovered animals of a different caliber. Spread out in four smaller groups we found about eleven animals identified as part of the resident group L-pod! These animals were traveling south at a quick clip and as we watched them, we glanced several fins with one belonging to a small calf. This was my first viewing of L-pod for this season! As the seas got a little choppier and we began to run out of time, we made our turn back to Friday Harbor. Along the way, we traveled through Mosquito Pass and saw the historic Roche harbor on the north side of the island.
Welcome back, L-pod!
Serena, Naturalist
San Juan Safaris
Tags: Bald Eagle, friday harbor, Harbor Seal, Haro Strait, Orca whale, san juan island, San Juan Safaris, Southern Resident Killer Whales
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Wednesday, May 18th, 2011
Wednesday arrived with sunny skies and the warmest temperatures of the season. We departed a little early for our trip due to word of whales in the area. We headed through Cattle Pass with the tide flooding against us. As we cleared the pass and entered Haro straight Captain Craig pointed our bow south towards Partridge Bank. But half way there we took a sharp right and headed up the straight as we spotted some Orca closer to our position.
We came on scene with just a couple other boats and found maybe 8 or so charismatic animals. None of the boats had been able to get positive IDs on any of them. But there was plenty of surface activity including some porpoising behavior and a few spectacular breaches. We stayed with the whales for about 25 minutes before turning back towards home. On the way we encountered Pacific Loons, Cormorants, Bald Eagles, Harbor Seals, and some Steller Sea Lions. What a great day!
Mike – Naturalist
San Juan Safaris
Tags: Bald Eagle, Bald Eagles, Cattle Pass, friday harbor, Harbor Seal, Haro Strait, Orca whale, San Juan Safaris, Transient Orcas, whale watching near seattle
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Sunday, May 8th, 2011
First things first…
Happy Mother’s Day to all of the wonderful mothers out there who raise us to love and appreciate the ocean and all of the amazing things living in it.
We left the harbor as if on a sheet of glass. It was calm enough to see a ripple a mile away. We headed north and around toward Battleship Island in search of giants. The calm seas and lack of wind afforded us a quick and comfortable ride out into Haro Straight. As soon as we got past Battleship one of our smaller, younger passengers started yelling and jumping up and down. Whales!
The enormous exhalation and tiny dorsal fin were definitely not those of an Orca. What we had encountered was a much less frequent visitor to the islands.
The two Humpback whales took 3 small breaths and then rounded out their backs, curling down until their massive flukes lifted toward the sky. A cheer broke out from every boat within 2 miles. We waited. Ten minutes later the duo surfaced again. Again, 3 surface breaths and then a dive. We prepared to wait another 10 minutes but the pattern changed. The whales surfaced after only a few minutes had passed. They dove quickly but surfaced again a short time later. Each time we were clued in to their surfacing by the sound of their exhalations. Magical.
Once more the whales came to the surface, lifted their flukes and dove. A moment later we began to notice footprints in a neat little line off our starboard side. We knew they were swimming just below the surface. We shut down the boat and waited in anticipation. The footprints continued for maybe a quarter of a mile before the whales finally surfaced again. We watched as the dove and headed off toward Canada.
With plenty of time remaining in our trip we turned north toward Stewart Island. We pulled in close to shore to take a peek at a pair of bald eagles and were surprised by a Steller Seal Lion that popped up behind us. Then a Harbor Seal Surfaced as well. Suddenly we noticed a tiny animal scurry out of a little cave and slide down into the water. We watched as a River Otter swam along the rocks, looking for a snack.
More eagles (including 2 juveniles) and seals on the way back in. What a day for charismatic megafauna!
Laura
Naturalist, San Juan Safaris
Tags: Bald Eagle, friday harbor, Harbor Seals, Haro Strait, Humpback Whale, Steller\'s Sea Lion
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